The Delphi Chronicle

The Delphi Chronicle is a serial trilogy – a story that unfolds over three installments. This group of three books chronicles the saga of NY private eye Michael Derrigan, as he unwittingly comes into possession of a manuscript that will change the world order if its secrets are aired. Clandestine factions of the U.S. government will do anything to keep the story buried, and a trail of butchery follows Derrigan as he races for his life in a chase that takes him from New York, to Mexico, to Havana. An epic roller-coaster ride of a thriller, The Delphi Chronicle’s unflinching and often disturbing twists and turns question the nature of reality and of the integrity of our governments in a post-modern world of lies, deceit and betrayal.

++++
Questions & Answers with bestselling author Russell Blake.

Question: The Delphi Chronicle posits a troubling & plausible conspiracy. Where did you get the idea?

Russell Blake: The idea stemmed from the title. I was originally going to call the trilogy The Pegasus File, & I’d conceptualized a cool cover, so I decided to google it and confirm there weren’t any other books with that name. The original conspiracy was much tamer than what I wound up with after that search. I had the idea of a literary agent getting a manuscript detailing a shocking set of allegations, but I hadn’t defined what they were, exactly. From that search came this conspiracy, & I have to admit I considered toning it down a lot, because it scared even me. So readers? This is fiction, OK? And U.S. government? No need to send a wet team after me. We all understand it is fictional. As in, an invention, not real. That’s my official position. Readers can decide how plausible the invention is for themselves.

Q: Why write it as a trilogy?

RB: It would have been a very long single volume if I’d tried to squeeze it all into a single book. Given the success I saw with the Zero Sum trilogy, I wanted to do another one, and this was just naturally written in three volumes, although I think most will get the first one, and then buy the specially-priced bundle of Books 2 & 3 if they’re interested in following the story to its thrilling conclusion (wink wink).

Q: How do your novels compare to the work of your peers?

RB: I think they’re much faster paced than most. I try to catapult readers through a series of twists and turns at such aggressive velocity that they’re left gasping by the end. And I dislike books where I can see the ending coming a third of the way through. Just hate that. So I try to write racing, intelligent thrillers that don’t pander and aren’t formulaic. All so far have gotten raves, so I’m fooling at least some of the people most of the time…

Q: Part of Delphi unfolds in Mexico. Any particular reason?

RB: I live in Mexico. Have for almost a decade. Modern Mexico is very different than the way it’s portrayed by the U.S. media. Many parts are indistinguishable from medium sized cities in the U.S. Strip malls, high rises, melting-pot racial integration, etc. It’s not burros and cactus and sombreros. One of the things I find fascinating is how different it is than what my expectations were for when I moved here, and I try to impart that in this book. I don’t see many novels that are set in modern Mexico, and most I’ve read are caricatures of the truth. Mission bells, white-garbed peasants, mariachis, stereotypical characters. I try to imbue my fiction with reality, not some Hollywood portrayal of the country based on a snapshot from the 1950s. I think readers will find that distinction interesting, as do I.